By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer When Eric Zscheile began negotiating with Parks Canada in the early 1990s, there was little room for Mi\u2019kmaq voices in the process. The relationship between Mi\u2019kmaq people and the federal agency was \u2014 as in many parts of Canada \u2014 strained. \u201cMost Mi\u2019kmaq in Nova Scotia refused to go inside a national park then,\u201d he said. \u201cThey felt they were being excluded from Mi\u2019kma\u2019ki \u2014 from their own land.\u201d Three decades later, those dynamics have shifted. Parks Canada and the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi\u2019kmaw Chiefs recently signed the Toqi’maliaptmu’k arrangement \u2014 a provincewide co-management agreement that gives Mi\u2019kmaq communities a direct role in governing national parks and historic sites. The deal covers all Parks Canada sites in the province… <\/p>\n
By Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada’s National Observer When Eric Zscheile began negotiating with Parks Canada in the early 1990s, there was little room for Mi\u2019kmaq voices in the process. The relationship between Mi\u2019kmaq people and the federal agency was \u2014 as in many parts of Canada \u2014 strained. \u201cMost Mi\u2019kmaq in Nova Scotia refused to go inside a national park then,\u201d he said. \u201cThey felt they were being excluded from Mi\u2019kma\u2019ki \u2014 from their own land.\u201d Three decades later, those dynamics have shifted. Parks Canada and the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi\u2019kmaw Chiefs recently signed the Toqi’maliaptmu’k arrangement \u2014 a provincewide co-management agreement that gives Mi\u2019kmaq communities a direct role in governing national parks and historic sites. The deal covers all Parks Canada sites in the province... <\/p>\n